Chapter 38
As Tsunade promised, there was hell to pay… mostly because she had a nasty hung over half of the time during the training and that translated into a special kind of cruelty, where she became a slave driver with no blood or tears.
“alright brats, that all for today”, Tsunade says after the end of the second week of training, “take tomorrow off, we’ll continue after that”.
“sheesh, my bones feel sore”, Mito says, while lying on the ground, “I didn’t even knew bones could get sore”.
“me too”, Sakura adds spitting a ball of grass, “ugh, I think I ate enough grass to put a cow to shame”.
“I don’t know what are you complaining about, if she’s pushing us to the limit it means she has faith in us as students”, Naruto says, while doing some stretches.
“oh shut up!”, Mito exclaims.
“easy for you to talk, I haven’t seen you break a sweat”, Sakura adds.
“that’s because I’m used to it, even from before my death and resurrection”, Naruto adds, “the only difference is that in my second life and now I have someone to guide my efforts”.
There’s a beat of awkward silence between the three of them, despite Mito knowing that Naruto lived his previous life as himself, she being a transmigrator herself, she didn’t knew how he lived the life before that and she was too afraid to ask.
“how was him?”, Sakura asks, she was also afraid to ask, but her curiosity was bigger than her fear, “you previous teacher, how was him?”.
“my master, she was…”, there’s a pause as Naruto gain a nostalgic glean to his eyes, “she was a slave driver, well she had to be, by the time I’ve got under her tutelage the War of Abyss was at full swing, the empire needed all the firepower they could put out as fast as they could”.
Naruto lets out a soft chuckle.
“she was a heartless bastard, but she was also a great teacher”, Naruto says as sense of longing takes over his voice, “she knew the chances of all of her students surviving the war was slim, but damn if she didn’t make sure we were able to go out with bang”.
After another melancholic chuckle, Naruto lets out a sigh.
“she was a great woman, and she fought like hell to her last breath”, Naruto says letting out another chuckle, “she died holding back the forces of the abyss so me and my regiment could scape to fight another day”.
“I’m sorry for bringing that up”, Sakura says with an worried tone.
“nah, it was a long time ago”, Naruto says waving his hand, “no need to feel sorry”.
While they relax and try to regain enough strength to peel themselves out of the ground, Kurenai approaches them
“oh, hi, am I interrupting something?”, the red eyes jonin asks.
“nah, we are just resting a little”, Sakura says, “today’s training was gruesome”.
“what about you, shouldn’t you be training Shino?”, Mito asks, “wasn’t he the only genin on your team to make it to the finals?”.
“yes, but he’s training more on his clans techniques today, so I have the day off”, Kurenai answers turning to Naruto, “can I talk with you in particular?”.
“sure”, Naruto says throwing a small red pouch to Mito, “here, some senzu beans”.
“I really forgot you had those”, Mito says, pulling one and giving other to Sakura.
“thanks”, Sakura says, as he and Kurenai walk off.
Once they were substantially far away from the other two Naruto turn to Kurenai.
“so, what can I do for you?”, Naruto asks, “you don’t need another loan do you?”.
“no, no I’m fine for now, I’ve done a few A-ranks here and there so I’m not strapped for cash”, Kurenai says, “I’m here because of one of my genin, Hinata”.
“oh, I heard she got wounded pretty badly in her fight”, Naruto says, “do you want me to heal her?”.
“I’ve come here for another reason, but if you could I would be grateful”, Kurenai says, “but the reason o wanted to talk to you is to ask you to talk to her”.
“why?”, Naruto questions.
“she’s been… more down then usual after you came back”, Kurenai admits with a sigh.
“really?”, Naruto questions.
“yeah, she’s has been feeling guilty about your death even before you came back”, Kurenai admits with a sad look as she remembers how depressed Hinata had been, “ she thinks you hate her”.
“why would I hate her?”, Naruto asks confused.
“she blames herself for the… incident that led you to be executed”, Kurenai admits.
There’s a beat of silence between the two before Naruto turns around and walks off.
“were are you going?”, Kurenai asks, noticing Naruto leaving.
“shower, I can’t go into the hospital smelling like this”, Naruto says and Kurenai’s expression brightens.
“did anyone ever told you are a nice dude?”, Kurenai asks with a smile.
“nah, I’m an asshole”, Naruto says with a chuckle, “an asshole with a heart of gold still an asshole and I wouldn’t have it any other way”.
It took a while to figure out where was Hinata’s room, but luckily, he found it.
“hi”, Naruto says, peeling an apple as Hinata was stirring up awake.
“N-Na…”, Hinata tries to say, but her chest starts hurting.
“easy there”, Naruto says, using a soothing spell to calm her, “you are still pretty banged up, try not move so much”.
There’s a second of silence as Naruto plates the slices of apple.
“Naruto, I’m sor-“, Hinata tries to say, but she’s stopped by a slice of apple being shived on her mouth.
“ok, none of that self-depreciating crap here lady”, Naruto says as Hinata chews, “I want to made very clear that I’m not mad at you”.
“but it was my fault you were…”, Hinata with her eyes filling with tears tries to argue, only for Naruto to gently dismiss her concerns.
“Hinata, you were an accessory in someone else’s machinations”, Naruto says waving at her, “an unwillingly accessory on top of that”.
“but…”, Hinata swallows a sob before continuing, “it was my clan who put the most pressure to get you executed”.
“and they were doing the right thing based on what they knew”, Naruto adds, “seriously, getting mad at you would be like getting stabbed and being mad at the blade and not at the stabber”.
There was soft sobbing coming from the Hyuuga heir as she felt her heart clench and despite Naruto’s advice, she lunges at him, glomping him into a hug while she cries her eyes out.
Taking advantage of the situation, Naruto heals her, all the while softly casting a quick light soothing spell mixed with a sleeping spell so she could get a good night’s sleep.
After the girl was sound asleep, Naruto decides to go around the hospital and see if anyone would like a free healing, after all he was in a good mood.
That’s when he feels the mad blood craze flooding one of the hospital room.
Gaara had a crazed look on his face as the next sacrifice to Mother laid unconscious.
His sand creeps out of it gourd, slowly closing on the passed out genin he fought in the prelims and his crazed smile grows.
“I wouldn’t do that if I was you”, comes Naruto’s voice, right next to him, very close too.
“mother demands his blood”, Gaara says as the sand stops midway and starts creeping on the new arrival, “leave and I may not take your blood too”.
“tell your ‘mother’ that she’ll have to take a rain check on that one”, Naruto says, throwing his left arms over Gaara’s shoulder and letting it rest on the sad incasing it and string to break it.
Gaara doesn’t know what’s wrong, he cannot feel fear coming from the stranger, no in reality what he feels is… he doesn’t know what he feels, but it is something.
“I will not repeat myself”, Naruto says, looking right into Gaara’s eyes.
He had to give it to the stranger, to show no fear in his presence to so boldly threat him to…
“do not think for a second your sand will protect you”, Naruto says as he feel Gaara tense up as he touches the back of the redhead’s neck with the tip of his indicator finger, “because it will not, not against me”.
Gaara’s sand retreats back into the gourd quickly as the cold sensation of Naruto’s finger against his neck sends strange signals to flare on his brain.
The Suna genin turns to leave.
“what’s your name stranger?”, Gaara asks without turning around.
“I’m Naruto”, Naruto answers, with his eyes still in the boy with bush-brows lying unconscious in the bed.
“I’m Gaara of the Sand”, Gaara says as he opens the door, “I hope we can meet again in the arena, mother demands your blood”.
“tell your mother that if she wants my blood so badly”, Naruto turns his head to face Gaara and with a sharp smile plastered from ear to ear he says, “then she can come and get it”.
Gaara smirks and leaves and Naruto lets out a sigh.
“that’s what I get for sticking my neck out of the woods”, Naruto turns back to bush-brows, “well, you own me two”.
He chuckles and heals the sleeping genin.
“you luck I have mad respect for tenacity, but that teacher of yours should have instilled some common sense into you”, Naruto says, “sometimes winning means living to fight another day, not taking your opponent with you to to grave”.
Naruto turns to leave.
“besides, any fight you win with a suicide move it’s a draw”, Naruto adds and leaves.
Unbeknownst to him, or maybe he knew and ignored him, a certain Nara heard and saw Naruto’s action.